Incorporation of Climate Change into Bureau of

Reclamation Water Management Activities:

Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

April, 2015, 7th World Water Forum, Daegu, South Korea

Climate Change Impacts in The
Western States
Increasing Temperature

Decreasing Precipitation

Increasing Precipitation

Decreasing Snowpack

Flood Control Challenges

Water Supply Availability

Hydropower Generation Availability

Significant Progress …
• assessing the
impacts of climate
change to water
resources, and

• implementing on-
the-ground actions to
mitigate impacts
Outline
• Climate Change Adaptation
Strategy
o Improve Reclamation’s ability to
consider climate change in Agency
decision making

• Examples of Detailed
Implementation Actions
o WaterSMART Basin Studies Program
o Hydroclimate data development and
sharing
 Climate Change Adaptation Strategy
Four Primary Goals

1. Increase Water Management Flexibility

2. Enhance Climate Adaptation Planning

3. Improve Infrastructure Resiliency

4. Expand Information Sharing

 Phased Approach

Programmatic Activity Develop Test Reclamation

for Goals 1-4 Technical and Implementation Directives and
Personnel Standards
Capabilities
 1. Increase Water Management
Flexibility
• Strategy Goal: Increase water management flexibility through climate
informed reservoir management.

• Guidance, Science and Capacity: Develop conceptual approaches for

considering climate change within reservoir operations and identify the
statistical tools and models necessary to implement those approaches.

• Pilot Study / Demonstration: Reclamation will initiate a pilot study to

evaluate how weather, hydrology, and climate change information could
better inform reservoir operations at one Reclamation reservoir by the end
of FY 2015. Multiple pilot demonstrations at different sites will follow,
continuing through 2017.

• Formalize Process and Implement: Update guidance based on pilot

activities and incorporate consideration of climate change information in
future reservoir operations planning.
 1. Increase Water Management
Flexibility – Implementation Actions
• Reservoir operations pilot
initiative

• Improve canal lining and

water treatment technology

• Implement water
management improvements

• Support water reuse and

recycling projects

• Optimize hydropower
production
 2. Enhance Climate Adaptation
Planning
• Strategy Goal: Enhance planning efforts to better understand and address
climate change impacts to the delivery of water and power, to infrastructure,
and to ecosystems and habitat affected by Reclamation projects.

• Guidance, Science and Capacity: Reclamation will identify opportunities

to expand General Planning by providing technical and financial assistance
to stakeholders to incorporate climate information into planning activities.

• Pilot Study / Demonstration : Building on the Basin Studies and West-

wide Climate Risk Assessments, Reclamation is incorporating climate
change information into other Reclamation planning efforts, including
feasibility studies and drought contingency planning.

• Formalize Process and Implement: In 2015, Reclamation will adopt

policy to incorporate climate change in relevant planning studies
 2. Enhance Climate Adaptation
Planning – Implementation Actions
• Enhanced Basin Studies and
WWCRA (West-Wide
Climate Risk Assessment)
Impact Assessments

• Research climate impacts to

extreme events and
ecosystems

• Drought Response Program

• Expanded General Planning

• Climate Change Training

3. Improve Infrastructure Resiliency
• Strategy Goal: Increase infrastructure resiliency by considering future climate in
evaluating Dam Safety and infrastructure replacement, repair and renovations.

• Guidance, Science and Capacity Develop reliable methods for projecting climate
change impacts on floods and underlying weather events, expected occurrence over
different western U.S. basins, and future likelihood. Revise criteria for prioritizing
infrastructure replacement, repair and renovations to incorporate climate
considerations.

• Pilot Study / Demonstration : The Dam Safety Program has initiated a pilot study at
Friant Dam in California to develop procedures to apply climate information in the
dam safety risk assessment process. Additional pilot studies continuing through FY
2017.

• Formalize Process and Implement: Establish requirements for consideration of

climate change as part of the Dam Safety risk assessment process, based on pilots.
Use revised criteria to consider climate change in decisions regarding infrastructure
replacement, repair and renovations.
3. Improve Infrastructure Resiliency
– Implementation Actions
• Dam Safety Climate
Change Assessment
Pilots

• Western Watershed
Enhancement
Partnership

• Climate-resilient
infrastructure
replacement, repair and
renovations
 4. Expand Information Sharing
• Strategy Goal: Make data and tools supporting water operations and
climate change adaptation more available to partners and stakeholders.

• Guidance, Science and Capacity: Provide critical operations data and

climate change information to Reclamation’s partners and stakeholders,
including Geographical Information Systems, implementation of security
protocols, and integration with other relevant information sharing efforts.

• Pilot Study / Demonstration: Beginning in 2014 the Lower Colorado

Region is developing a pilot to provide reservoir data available through web
based services. The Pacific Northwest Region is developing a
Reclamation-wide Geographical Information System to serve localized
climate change data sets.

• Formalize Process and Implement: A formalized and regularly updated

Reclamation-wide system of distribution of information that can support
Reclamation and its partners making real time and planning level decisions.
 4. Expand Information Sharing –
Implementation Actions

• Improve access to
water and
hydropower data

• Coordinate climate
adaptation activities
with partners and
stakeholders.
Outline
• Climate Change Adaptation
Strategy
o Improve Reclamation’s ability to
consider climate change in Agency
decision making

• Examples of Detailed
Implementation Actions
o WaterSMART Basin Studies Program
o Hydroclimate data development and
sharing
 WaterSMART Basin Studies Program

• Public Law 111-11, Subtitle F (SECURE

Water Act, SWA, 2009) § 9503.

• Climate change risks for water and

environmental resources in “major
Reclamation river basins.”

• Reclamation’s WaterSMART (Sustain

and Manage America’s Resources for
Tomorrow) Basin Study Program
1. West-Wide Climate Risk Assessments
(WWCRAs)

2. Basin Studies

3. Landscape Conservation Cooperatives 8 major Reclamation River Basin

(LCCs)

SECURE – Science and Engineering to Comprehensively

Understand and Responsibly Enhance
WEST WIDE CLIMATE RISK
ASSESSMENTS
 What are WWCRAs?

• WWCRAs involve three basic climate change

assessments conducted across the western 17 states:
1. Assess water supply in a consistent west-wide manner
2. Assess water demands in a consistent west-wide manner
3. Impact assessment conducted on individual basins or sub-basins to
address risks to focal areas identified in the SECURE Water Act
• using current operating requirements

• Reclamation wide technical implementation team

(w/ participation from other agencies)
– Generating information resources and tools for Reclamation staff
and stakeholders to use in studies
– Developing technical guidance to assist Reclamation staff and
stakeholders incorporate climate change into their analyses
BASIN STUDIES
 Phases of a Basin Study
Phase 1: Assess current and projected water supply
Water Supply and Demand
and demand in a changing climate
Assessment

Analyze how the basin will respond to water

Phase 2:
supply and demand projections according
System Reliability Analysis
to identified measures

Phase 3: Develop adaptation strategies to reduce any

Development of Adaptation identified gaps
Strategies

Phase 4: Evaluate adaptation strategies, findings,

Evaluation of Adaptation and recommendations as appropriate
Strategies
Funded Basin Studies
22 Basin Studies funded since 2009

2009
• Colorado River Basin
• Milk/St. Mary River Basins
• Yakima River Basin
2010
• Niobrara River Basin
• Truckee River Basin
• Santa Ana River Basin
• Henrys Fork of Snake River
• S.E. California Regional Basin
2011
• Lower Rio Grande River Basin
• Santa Fe Basin
• Klamath River Basin
• Hood River Basin
2012
• Upper Washita River Basin
• Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers
• Republican River Basin
• Pecos River Basin
• L.A. Basin
2013
• San Diego Watershed
• West Salt River Valley
2014
• Deschutes River Basin
• Upper Missouri River Basin
• Upper Red River Basin
LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION
COOPERATIVES
 Basin Study Program - LCCs
• On-the-ground strategic conservation & resource management efforts at the
landscape level

• In 2010, the Department of Interior developed a plan for a coordinated,

science-based response to climate change impacts on our land, water, and
wildlife resources.

• LCCs are the applied science branch of this strategy

– Each LCC will function in a specific geographic area, and will form a national and
possibly an international network.

• Reclamation co-leads the Desert LCC and Southern Rockies LCC with FWS
that encompass the Colorado River Basin
 Example Reports

http://www.usbr.gov/international/wwf_climate.html
HYDROCLIMATE DATA
 Translating
climate
Emissions projections to Operations
Scenarios Model
hydrology
projections
Spatial
Downscaling
Climate
Simulations Hydrologic
Model
Downscaled CMIP3 and CMIP5 Climate
and Hydrology Projections
http://gdo-dcp.ucllnl.org/downscaled_cmip_projections/dcpInterface.html
Streamflow Projections for the Western United States
http://gis.usbr.gov/Streamflow_Projections/
 Summary
• Risks from a Changing Climate

– Change in snowpack
– Groundwater recharge and discharge
– Increases in water demand or
reservoir evaporation as a result of
increasing temperature

• Climate Change Impacts

– Ability to deliver water

– Hydroelectric power generation
– Recreation at Reclamation facilities
– Fish and wildlife habitat
– Endangered, threatened, candidate
species
– Water quality issues
– Flow dependent ecological resiliency
– Flood control management

Climate Change Adaptation Strategy

Questions?